According to the Pentagon, Al Qaeda uses Syria as a “haven” to rebuild, coordinate and plan operations.
A senior al Qaeda leader was killed in a US drone strike in Syria, the Pentagon reported on Friday.
“An air strike by the United States in northwestern Syria today killed Al Qaida leader Abdul Hamid al-Matar,” confirmed the spokesman for the Central Command (Centcom), Army Major John Rigsbee, in a statement.
The attack comes two days after a base in southern Syria that is used by the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group was attacked.
There are no known victims of the attack, Rigsbee said, adding that it was carried out using an MQ-9 aircraft.
“The fall of this senior al Qaeda leader will disrupt the terrorist organization’s ability to continue plotting and carrying out global attacks,” he said.
In late September, the Pentagon killed Salim Abu-Ahmad, another senior al Qaeda commander in Syria, in an airstrike near Idlib in the northwest of the country.
He had been responsible for “planning, financing and approving Al Qaida’s trans-regional attacks,” according to Centcom.
“Al Qaida continues to be a threat to the United States and our allies. Al Qaida uses Syria as a safe haven to rebuild, coordinate with external affiliates and plan external operations, ”Rigsbee warned.
The ongoing war in Syria has created a complex battlefield involving foreign armies, militias and jihadists.
The war has killed around half a million people since it began in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests. (I)
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